ALSACAT:

As its name suggests, ALSACAT is my comprehensive catalog of UFO sighting reports in Alsace, the region is the North-East of France, whether they are "explained" or "unexplained".

The ALSACAT catalog is made of case files with a case number, summary, quantitative information (date, location, number of witnesses...), classifications, all sources mentioning the case with their references, a discussion of the case in order to evaluate its causes, and a history of the changes made to the file. A general index and thematic sub-catalogs give access to these Alsatian case files.

Case in Kiflis, on May 10, 1955:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1955-05-10-KIFFLIS-1

Summary:

Former journalist Christian Valentin, in his 2012 book on the story of UFO sightings in Alsace, reported that on Tuesday, May 10, 1955, in southern Alsace, these events occurred, reported in the regional newspaper L'Alsace for Friday, May 13, 1955:

At 9 p.m., many witnesses in the southern Upper Rhine saw three bright circles appearing and disappearing in the clouds intermittently for about twenty minutes. If some thought at first they were seeing a demonstration of flying saucers, the phenomenon was quickly interpreted as the reflection of three powerful light beams on the cloud layer.

And what turns out to be a banal mistake would not deserve to be mentioned except that there might have been two distinct phenomena. Indeed, the press of the time separates two concurrent events, but identical in description and duration.

The first event was located in the border area with Basel and these are the three projectors of the Blotzheim airfield (currently Basel-Mulhouse) turned on for the landing of an airliner; which are at the origin.

This second would be located some twenty miles to the west, above the sector of Ferrette. In the latter case, witnesses residing in Kiffis are convinced that they were projectors of the Swiss army who was conducting at that time maneuvers along the border.

Classifications:

Sources:

Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book telling the story of UFO sightings, flying saucers sightings, in Alsace, from the beginning to 1980.

In this book, he reports that that on Tuesday, May 10, 1955, in the southern of Alsace, occurred the events reported in the newspaper l'Alsace for Friday, May 13, 1955:

On Tuesday, May 10, at 9 p.m., many witnesses in the southern Upper Rhine, saw three bright circles appearing and disappearing in the clouds intermittently for about twenty minutes. If some thought at first they were seeing a demonstration of flying saucers, the phenomenon was quickly interpreted as the reflection of three powerful light beams on the cloud layer.

And what turns out to be a banal mistake would not deserve to be mentioned except that there might have been two distinct phenomena. Indeed, the press of the time separates two concurrent events, but identical in description and duration.

The first event was located in the border area with Basel and these are the three projectors of the Blotzheim airfield (currently Basel-Mulhouse) turned on for the landing of an airliner; which are at the origin.

The second would be located some twenty miles to the west, above the sector of Ferrette. In the latter case, witnesses residing in Kiffis are convinced that they were projectors of the Swiss army who was conducting at that time maneuvers along the border.

Discussion:

Kiffis is at less than one kilometer from the Swiss border, wheras Ferrette is at about 6 kilometers from the Swiss border.

So it is not suprizing that the witness in Kiffis were able to see the Swiss army using projecteors in their maneuvers, whereas the more distant witnesses in the Blotzheim area saw something else.

This case is called a "negative case" in ufology, that is to say, an observation whose witnesses identify the cause of the observation.

Evaluation:

Swiss army projectors.

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.